Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Imitation of respect - Delilahfication strikes again...

Let’s jump right in, shall we?

A couple of weekends ago Brother Rob Thurman came over the House of Bitchitude for dinner, a movie and some Mad Men. Brother Rob selected Imitation of Life for our film viewage…the 1934 one with Claudette Colbert. C-money and this bitch weren’t familiar with this version and watched in varying states of shock as Delilah Johnson (played by Louise Beavers) acted out racial stereotype after racial stereotype. The theme of Delilah was that she was more comfortable serving her kind hearted well intentioned mistress (Colbert) than striking out on her own and making millions with her pancake recipe. In other words, Delilah wants a nice white woman to take care of her...and her money...and her child's trifling ass I-don't-want-to-be-black color struck drama.

Haven't these people ever heard of Madame C.J. Walker?

***cue crickets***

Anyhoo...

Something about Imitation of Life stuck with a bitch. I kept thinking that I should be able to view such films as windows to the past, but that wasn’t where my head was. Then a certain Mignon sent this bitch a link to Joan Walsh’s piece Whew! on Salon.com and things began to fall into place…and they settled in firm as a motherfucker when news of Mark Penn’s Native Born strategy came to light.

See chil’ren, a bitch started watching the Democratic Primary season with great enthusiasm. I was excited to see Senator Clinton run and encouraged by the fact that she was in the lead right up until Iowa.

Senator Clinton’s campaign lost my respect...lost it all on their own without spin or some non-existent Black People Rise & Be Pissed newsletter telling me what to do or how to think. And I posted here through the evolution of that loss…yet some (note that a bitch did not say all) Clinton supporters seem to think that I’ve been spun by some magnificent machine that can control when, where and why people get offended by the shit that other people say and do.

A bitch has responded to that argument by pointing out that I saw, heard and witnessed incidents of coded and overt bigotry that even the most optimistic true believer shouldn’t be able to casually deny…and I have been amazed that, although I’d never deny the sexism that has plagued the Democratic selection process, some (note that a bitch did not say all) Clinton supporters are capable of completely denying the race baiting anti-Muslim fear of a brown people presidency shit and acting as if a bitch is just being...wait for it...sensitive.

Mmmhmmm, a bitch has decided to call it Delilahfication (wink) and define it as the refusal to acknowledge that people of color think independently and, as a result of a lifetime lived as people of color, may see things your…and I’ll quote Ms. Walsh here… "sheltered white civil rights backer(s)" ass may miss.

Like race baiting for political gain coming out of the mouth of someone you have historically viewed as oh so tolerant and a friend of black folks.

The list continueth, but Walsh prefers to ignore the whole in favor of her wish...her need...to see the Clintons as incapable of participating in such things.

In her mind and in the minds of many it is just too disturbing to think that the Clinton’s deliberately used a strategy that played on America’s never ending struggle with race and fear of the other.

It is much easier to simply dismiss those who do make that charge as being misled, hence the Delilahfication of Clinton’s critics on this issue.

Sigh.

The thing is a bitch respects the political sophistication of both Clintons too much to give them that out.

Sorry, but this one time Clinton fan can’t buy them and their surrogates making verbal malfunction after verbal malfunction after verbal malfunction by mistake.

Now we have the recent news that Mark Penn of the cocaine, cocaine and did I mention cocaine Penns was pitching a tactic that would have cast Senator Obama as not reflecting American values…as some kind of foreign other who lacks the American habits and ways that “real” Americans prefer in their leaders.

Yeah.

Nice.

While some see Senator Clinton’s rejection of that pitch as a positive this bitch sees the pitch itself as more proof of where Penn and, given his leadership position, the campaign were willing to go but for the potential negatives out-weighing the positives.

Okay, so I’m offended by the thought behind that American or not American enough tactic.

Is it anti-immigrant…anti-world traveler…or anti-other?

Lawdy, Lawdy if only some sheltered white civil rights backer could explain it all away so’s I can go back to likin' these folks 'gain…

16 comments:

I'm with ya on this.I was *so* willing to cut the Clintons some slack for most of the primaries, and give them the benefit of the doubt when questionable acts and utterances came up. For instance, when Bill said that stuff about Jesse Jackson winning in South Carolina too, I figured he couldn't be trying to belittle Obama's victory - BC's too classy a person to do that.The turning point for me - the straw that broke the camel's back, if you will - was that Pennsylvania "bittergate" shit. There was Hillary terming an Obama remark (which was, granted, poorly worded) "elitist". And to show she herself wasn't elitist like Obama, there she was drinking in a working-class bar (where she looked *so* risibly out of place). Really, in Pennsylvania Hillary was handing working-class whites an acceptable excuse for shunning Obama. They could reject him not because he's black, but because he's elitist. "See," they could reason, "it has nothing to do with the colour of his skin. It's that elitism. And he insulted us." Never mind that the Wellesley- and Yale-educated Hillary, a former board member at Wal-Mart, was more elitist and was insulting their intelligence.Hillary Clinton's behaviour in the Penn primary was nothing short of disgraceful.It makes me a little ill to consider just how race will be used next in this campaign.

This one-time Clinton supporter is right with you, ABB. I actually voted for Clinton in the primaries--and now wish I hadn't. I've been shocked and disgusted by the scare-mongering, racist, condescending way the Clinton camp has dealt with Obama's campaign. Obama's folks just plain out-strategized them, and it seems that the Clintons and some of their allies responded by playing up a bunch of Fox-News-esque bullshit. Clinton deserved to lose.

I have found in the last year, my respect for Bill in a SERIOUS decline. I have been appalled in I could not identify the source. But, I think you have hit the nail on the head.

Between this undercurrent and the whole "Hillary is 44" website, I am as leary (read flat out afraid) of the Clintons as I am of the Bushes. Not to mention that 41 and 42 are buds now...there is something rotten in the state of Demark.

I'm with you, Shark-Fu, and like another commenter said, Hillary's old Southern-style campaign tactics in Pennsylvania were inexcusable. She turned back the clock by doing this shit to pander votes from those white working class folks whom she'd never otherwise give the time of day.

But the worst and most unforgivable thing she did was out of the blue, in three different interviews with reporters, casually mentioned in May how Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June.

She did this while talking about remaining in the race against Obama, and RFK wasn't in the conversation no way, no how. I saw that as a subliminal suggestion for someone in the loony masses to pick up a gun and do him in, and a secret hope that as Keith Olbermann said, she was just hanging around as a candidate in case her opponent got assassinated. Despicable.

My husband and I both voted for Hillary and watched in dismay at the ineptitude of the campaign and the "same ole, same ole" dirty jabs and innuendos. I am to this day shocked at how Bill is behaving...kind of like Jesse Sr. It's like they have this intitalment problem. Obama must win.

The Clintons aren't racists. However, they will do anything to win. And Bill was trying to cut Obama's legs out when he made the comments he made. What I find interesting is the willingness of the PUMA folks to totally ignore the substandard campaigning and boneheaded gaffes coming from the Clinton campaign. Some folks are headed to Denver thinking they can stage some sort of party mutiny. I wonder what they think would happen if Hillary were to somehow end up the nominee.

I am glad that Joan Walsh has lived a life so free of racial tumult that the unfair branding of a national politician she was moved by has rocked her so. On behalf of my school desegregating grandparents I'd like to say hey, at least no one has shot at him.

This sheltered white civil rights backer cannot explain it at all. While I agree with Rounder (above) that the Clintons will do anything to win -- as, I think, will most politicians -- their use of race most certainly does make them racist. They are not by any means tone-deaf on the issue, and knew exactly what they were doing.

AP reporting that Hillary will get a roll call vote at the convention. Since Obama hasn't named his VP yet (something for which I am waiting for until he gets another dime from me) I do wonder if this is yet another ploy to get her on the ticket. what a drag it is reading the news.

Keep up the good work, ABB. This bitch thinks you're the best part of her lunch break!

Now I've learned that a book swiftboating Obama as potentially Muslim and his wife is an angry "black power" fanatic is tops on the New York Times bestseller list.

It's bothersome, but it's important to remember that it's the kind of book that makes its way up the charts because conservative book clubs buy them in bulk and then generally take a loss on them later. It's part of the conservative welfare system.

What do you mean, "non-existentBlack People Rise & Be Pissed newsletter"? It's not non-existent, Shark-fu. I've been printing those pamphlets on the regular!

Seriously, I'm right there with you on this. I started this campaign with more than a little enthusiasm for HRC's candidacy. That began to wane with each new "blunder" that came from the mouth of Clinton apologists/mouthpieces/operatives. By the end of the primary season, I was just walking around constantly stupefied by how much I had grown to loathe the Clintons. I never thought that would happen.

So what you are saying is that since the Clintons are racists,it is okay for the DNC to disenfranchise everyone in Florida and Michigan to make sure your candidate wins. Are you aware that it was an Obama supporter who sponsored the bill to move up the Florida primary (Wexler the traitor)? Are you aware that women have never, in a hundred years actually been able to use the right to vote till now and your candidate made a complete mockery of that process? Are you aware that he calls Appalachians racist every chance he gets to hide the fact that he is antiunion? Why did the New Yorker bother you, but the literally hundreds of cartoons of Hillary looking like they were penned by a Nazi propagandist sat just fine with you? These politicians are well protected. How about the cartoons depicting stupid hillbillies and old ladies. Who is protecting women and the poor? You want to know how those misogynist, bigoted cartoons made me feel, especially after they start SHOOTING unitarians for wanting us all to live together in peace. Why don't you talk about Jesse Jackson, Jr. or Jamal Symmons and the way they laugh at all poor people and women whenever they can. Do you think they aren't doing this for the "Prince"? I am an American and I love you, and I should have the right to vote. Please remember those Appalachians (that Obama can't even pronounce) go down in holes and die of silicosis so you can stay warm in the winter. Please remember those women that you hate so much built the planes and the weapons of WWII and were then asked to "Go home and get over it" Please remember that anybody who has been raped or passed over for promotion or refused education or disenfranchised "Gets It" Why do you stand for people who do this to other Americans? These same women have always supported you. Vote Cynthia McKinney (Green) an African American Woman who loves peace and the planet and doesn't work for Howard Dean, Donna Brazille, or the Nuclear Power Pac. Thank you for the chance to express myself, something the DNC won't give me. Blessed Be.

And I don't think the Clinton's are racist...I think they are political opportunists, which is worse in a way. At least a racist really believes the stereotypes they hope to perpetuate.

I'm deeply troubled that any woman would think that women have not had the vote until Senator Clinton made her run...as if the only way a woman's vote is relevant is if she is voting for a woman.

Vote, my sister...but vote from a place of knowledge.

I would never propose that the sexism that is present in all American society as it is in politics doesn't exist.

You, however, seem comfortable dismissing racism simply because you are inspired by other factors.

It must be nice to be able to put on such blinders.

I hope you find the courage to revise your take and move forward in a more comprehensive approach that might actually break through the tragic constant of race versus gender that is the history of feminism in this country...